Monday, April 4, 2011 That's me and my dog Chewee! My name is Jess. I teach 7th grade Life Science in Newburyport at the Nock Middle School. I'm going on my second year teaching and I absolutely love it. I graduated from Merrimack College in 2009, where I studied Environmental Science, Spanish, and Middle School Education. I also played field hockey there and really miss that aspect of college. Luckily, I stay busy coaching and participating in many after school programs at school including field hockey, basketball, bowling, track, and snowboarding. I really enjoy staying active, traveling, and drawing. In my junior year of college I studied abroad in Sydney, Australia and ever since then, I've been dying to travel everywhere. One of the classes I really enjoyed there was a Marine Biology class. I was also able to take a course through the New England Aquarium while I was a student at Merrimack. I am hoping that I will be able to use some of the things I learned in those courses and combine it with what I learn through Boat Camp to enhance my curriculum at Nock Middle School. I am also interested in using what I learn during Boat Camp to come up with ideas to use for my GOMI project (Gulf of Maine Institute). (GOMI is a place-based learning initiative that some of the teachers at my school will be participating in next year).
I'm excited for this weekend! See you soon.
-Jess
Friday, April 8, 2011
The majority of the surface of the Earth is covered in ocean, so it's no wonder that humans are very much dependent on them. In fact, it's the ocean that seems to make the Earth hospitable for humans and other life. So much of the things humans need for survival are directly dependent on the preservation and protection of one of the Earth's most valuable resources.
From the moment we entered the Cushing House Museum, up until class ended, we talked about the numerous ways humans and the ocean are interconnected. Learning about the history of Newburyport was very helpful in showing how dependent the people of our community were (and still are today) on the ocean around us. The community of Newburyport became what it is today all because the ocean drew people to this land and allowed them to profit off of it. It enabled merchants to make a living and separate from the agricultural town of Newbury to form the affluent city of Newburyport. Without the profitable oceans, the people who settled in this area would not have been able to survive, nevermind flourish like they did.
Not only in Newburyport, but all over America, people flocked to communities located on the water during the great migration. This is directly due to the fact that people need the ocean to survive and because it offers so many valuable resources and means of making a living. Even today, the world's population shows that this is true. According to Rob, nearly 60% of the world's population lives within 50 miles of the ocean.
It seems so interesting that today, even 200 years later, people are still so connected to the oceans. It is also interesting that despite the fact that we now understand how important the oceans are for us, we are not taking care of them like we should be. Since the ocean is connected to us and we are connected to it, the human population needs to create ways to make sure this necessity of life is protected and not destroyed.
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Sandy Point
Today was a wonderful day at the beach! Exploring Sandy Point was exciting, refreshing, and reminded me how great it is to spend a day with nature. I felt like I learned some useful information about Plum Island and how it was formed. Plum Island is a barrier island, which is basically like a big sand bar that protects the land from the ocean and helps shape everything behind it. The island was formed hundreds of thousands of years ago by the Wisconsin glacier. The land was completely covered in an ice sheet and then when a climate change occurred, the glaciers melted and formed a paleo-delta (massive river). Today, Sandy Point is still shaped on a daily basis by the ocean, as Gary pointed out when he showed us a giant boulder that a few months earlier had been completely covered by sand.
While exploring the tide pools, beach, and dunes, I found a lot of interesting things. In the tide pools, I found shrimp, crabs, barnacles, seaweed, and clam worms.These organisms need to the ocean to survive. I found the barnacles especially interesting because Rob showed me how some of the submerged barnacles were feeding (see my attached video). This was something that made me think of my students because I have a feeling that many of them wouldn't have a clue they were even alive! I found it hard to stop looking around this area because I have always been a "collector" of things and I found myself searching for shells, sand dollars, and sea glass.
Cody with a clam worm!
When we walked through the dunes, it was like a different world. It's hard to believe the two habitats are right next to each other. I have never walked into the dunes like we did today, so this was really amazing to me. I loved finding all of the animal tracks. I would really like to go back there on a day when the sand was more damp (hoping the tracks would be more clear). I also really enjoyed seeing all of the different vegetation in the dunes. I learned about earth stars, British soldiers, and a staghorn lichen. I think I need to brush up on my knowledge of the plant life that grows there because I didn't recognize much of the vegetation today.
Staghorn lichen
I especially liked the activities we did when we took a break after our dune walk. I really liked the Silent activity we did. I think that I will try this next year with my students at the beginning of the year to introduce observing with all of your senses. I also really enjoyed the "Nature Art" activity. I would definitely do this activity with my kids too. I think middle schoolers would LOVE it.
My creation :)
If I were to take my students on a field trip to Plum Island, I would want to do it to help explain the needs and characteristics of life (something we study at the beginning of the year). I think I'd want to do some of the exploration and collection activities we did. I'd also like to try to incorporate sketches/photography/videos into the field trip in order to get my kids recording what they see and using some technology.
Here's a video I made with pictures from today....
We began our day at Spencer Peirce Little Farm, a place that I am always excited about because it brings me back to my childhood memories of visiting Old Sturbridge Village. Each time I have visited what I find so especially interesting is the fact that I have a different tour guide each time. Today, I was in the group with the Site Director, so I felt I learned some extra special tidbits about the farm’s history. I thought that the trip today really help show the difference in the lives of the agriculturalist of early Newburyport in comparison to the merchants we looked at on Friday. I loved hearing about Offin Boardman and how he was a privateer. I found this site from the Worcester Art Museum (http://www.worcesterart.org/Collection/Early_American/Artists/gullager/captain/discussion.html) That talks about what he did. I find these two paragraphs especially interesting because they are what Bethany mentioned during our tour.
“Boardman was active in the American Revolution and gained notoriety for capturing two British ships on the same day. On January 15, 1776, Boardman suspected that the 200-ton ship Friends, which was several miles offshore, was lost.5 He and a crew in three whale boats approached the ship and offered to pilot it into the harbor. The captain, Archibald Bowie, thought that he was near British-occupied Boston and accepted Boardman's offer. Boardman's armed crew boarded the ship and brought the supply-laden vessel to the Newburyport wharf. Earlier the same morning Boardman, as master of the privateer Washington, captured the brig Sukey, which was bound for Boston from Cork. Boardman was captured in 1776 and imprisoned at Mill Prison, Plymouth, England, from June 1777 to January 1779.6 His diary documents his imprisonment and two escapes. A first brief escape on January 29, 1778 ended with his capture in London on February 17 and return to Mill Prison on April 18. He escaped again on January 4, 1779, and this time could write, "I got clear to America" by way of France.7 In France Boardman "was introduced to His Excellencies Franklin and Adams who desired me to stop to dinner, which I did myself the honour to accept."8 Boardman helped to equip privateers in France and sailed to Virginia on a commercial ship, the Betsey, which he later captained.9 In addition to notes about weather and maintenance of the ship, Boardman's diary includes a poem that he wrote to his wife and a list of the books with which he traveled. “
The next place we headed to was the Oak Hills Cemetery, where we walked around with Ghlee Woodworth tiptoeing through the tombstones. I found it fascinating that so many people buried in the cemetery were somehow linked to people we had talked about on Friday night at the Cushing House. Today’s walked really show how interconnected much of Newburyport was and how the history of this community is so rich with exciting stories.
Beam with records of boats made each year
To finish up the day we headed to Lowell’s Boat Shop in Amesbury, which is where the first dories were created. Due to the structure of these boats, they became very popular. Their structure really allowed for people to carry heavy loads in a small boat that was very stable. I found it amazing that at one time, this small workshop was cranking out boats on a daily basis. Walking through the shop gave me the sense of how hard the boat builders must have worked day in and day out. I really liked looking at the records kept on the beams of how many boats were built per year. This showed how busy the shop must have been in its heyday. I also liked hearing the things that most people wouldn’t know about the shop, like how the 1st floor was completely covered in inches of paint over the years MY LESSON PLANS:
Monday, April 4, 2011
My name is Jess. I teach 7th grade Life Science in Newburyport at the Nock Middle School. I'm going on my second year teaching and I absolutely love it. I graduated from Merrimack College in 2009, where I studied Environmental Science, Spanish, and Middle School Education. I also played field hockey there and really miss that aspect of college. Luckily, I stay busy coaching and participating in many after school programs at school including field hockey, basketball, bowling, track, and snowboarding. I really enjoy staying active, traveling, and drawing. In my junior year of college I studied abroad in Sydney, Australia and ever since then, I've been dying to travel everywhere. One of the classes I really enjoyed there was a Marine Biology class. I was also able to take a course through the New England Aquarium while I was a student at Merrimack. I am hoping that I will be able to use some of the things I learned in those courses and combine it with what I learn through Boat Camp to enhance my curriculum at Nock Middle School. I am also interested in using what I learn during Boat Camp to come up with ideas to use for my GOMI project (Gulf of Maine Institute). (GOMI is a place-based learning initiative that some of the teachers at my school will be participating in next year).
I'm excited for this weekend! See you soon.
-Jess
Friday, April 8, 2011
The majority of the surface of the Earth is covered in ocean, so it's no wonder that humans are very much dependent on them. In fact, it's the ocean that seems to make the Earth hospitable for humans and other life. So much of the things humans need for survival are directly dependent on the preservation and protection of one of the Earth's most valuable resources.
From the moment we entered the Cushing House Museum, up until class ended, we talked about the numerous ways humans and the ocean are interconnected. Learning about the history of Newburyport was very helpful in showing how dependent the people of our community were (and still are today) on the ocean around us. The community of Newburyport became what it is today all because the ocean drew people to this land and allowed them to profit off of it. It enabled merchants to make a living and separate from the agricultural town of Newbury to form the affluent city of Newburyport. Without the profitable oceans, the people who settled in this area would not have been able to survive, nevermind flourish like they did.
Not only in Newburyport, but all over America, people flocked to communities located on the water during the great migration. This is directly due to the fact that people need the ocean to survive and because it offers so many valuable resources and means of making a living. Even today, the world's population shows that this is true. According to Rob, nearly 60% of the world's population lives within 50 miles of the ocean.
It seems so interesting that today, even 200 years later, people are still so connected to the oceans. It is also interesting that despite the fact that we now understand how important the oceans are for us, we are not taking care of them like we should be. Since the ocean is connected to us and we are connected to it, the human population needs to create ways to make sure this necessity of life is protected and not destroyed.
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Today was a wonderful day at the beach! Exploring Sandy Point was exciting, refreshing, and reminded me how great it is to spend a day with nature. I felt like I learned some useful information about Plum Island and how it was formed. Plum Island is a barrier island, which is basically like a big sand bar that protects the land from the ocean and helps shape everything behind it. The island was formed hundreds of thousands of years ago by the Wisconsin glacier. The land was completely covered in an ice sheet and then when a climate change occurred, the glaciers melted and formed a paleo-delta (massive river). Today, Sandy Point is still shaped on a daily basis by the ocean, as Gary pointed out when he showed us a giant boulder that a few months earlier had been completely covered by sand.
While exploring the tide pools, beach, and dunes, I found a lot of interesting things. In the tide pools, I found shrimp, crabs, barnacles, seaweed, and clam worms.These organisms need to the ocean to survive. I found the barnacles especially interesting because Rob showed me how some of the submerged barnacles were feeding (see my attached video). This was something that made me think of my students because I have a feeling that many of them wouldn't have a clue they were even alive! I found it hard to stop looking around this area because I have always been a "collector" of things and I found myself searching for shells, sand dollars, and sea glass.
When we walked through the dunes, it was like a different world. It's hard to believe the two habitats are right next to each other. I have never walked into the dunes like we did today, so this was really amazing to me. I loved finding all of the animal tracks. I would really like to go back there on a day when the sand was more damp (hoping the tracks would be more clear). I also really enjoyed seeing all of the different vegetation in the dunes. I learned about earth stars, British soldiers, and a staghorn lichen. I think I need to brush up on my knowledge of the plant life that grows there because I didn't recognize much of the vegetation today.
I especially liked the activities we did when we took a break after our dune walk. I really liked the Silent activity we did. I think that I will try this next year with my students at the beginning of the year to introduce observing with all of your senses. I also really enjoyed the "Nature Art" activity. I would definitely do this activity with my kids too. I think middle schoolers would LOVE it.
If I were to take my students on a field trip to Plum Island, I would want to do it to help explain the needs and characteristics of life (something we study at the beginning of the year). I think I'd want to do some of the exploration and collection activities we did. I'd also like to try to incorporate sketches/photography/videos into the field trip in order to get my kids recording what they see and using some technology.
Here's a video I made with pictures from today....
Sandy Point Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_4NMtM2vY0 (just in case it doesn't work)
Sunday, April 10, 2011
We began our day at Spencer Peirce Little Farm, a place that I am always excited about because it brings me back to my childhood memories of visiting Old Sturbridge Village. Each time I have visited what I find so especially interesting is the fact that I have a different tour guide each time. Today, I was in the group with the Site Director, so I felt I learned some extra special tidbits about the farm’s history. I thought that the trip today really help show the difference in the lives of the agriculturalist of early Newburyport in comparison to the merchants we looked at on Friday. I loved hearing about Offin Boardman and how he was a privateer. I found this site from the Worcester Art Museum (http://www.worcesterart.org/Collection/Early_American/Artists/gullager/captain/discussion.html) That talks about what he did. I find these two paragraphs especially interesting because they are what Bethany mentioned during our tour.
Boardman was captured in 1776 and imprisoned at Mill Prison, Plymouth, England, from June 1777 to January 1779.6 His diary documents his imprisonment and two escapes. A first brief escape on January 29, 1778 ended with his capture in London on February 17 and return to Mill Prison on April 18. He escaped again on January 4, 1779, and this time could write, "I got clear to America" by way of France.7 In France Boardman "was introduced to His Excellencies Franklin and Adams who desired me to stop to dinner, which I did myself the honour to accept."8 Boardman helped to equip privateers in France and sailed to Virginia on a commercial ship, the Betsey, which he later captained.9 In addition to notes about weather and maintenance of the ship, Boardman's diary includes a poem that he wrote to his wife and a list of the books with which he traveled. “
To finish up the day we headed to Lowell’s Boat Shop in Amesbury, which is where the first dories were created. Due to the structure of these boats, they became very popular. Their structure really allowed for people to carry heavy loads in a small boat that was very stable. I found it amazing that at one time, this small workshop was cranking out boats on a daily basis. Walking through the shop gave me the sense of how hard the boat builders must have worked day in and day out. I really liked looking at the records kept on the beams of how many boats were built per year. This showed how busy the shop must have been in its heyday. I also liked hearing the things that most people wouldn’t know about the shop, like how the 1st floor was completely covered in inches of paint over the years
MY LESSON PLANS: